Lost in Wonderland
by The First Alice
Summary: We've all heard of Wonderland, but is it really so wonderful? There are stories that no one knows exist, except for the ones who wrote them. I have heard these stories, and now I think it's time I pass them on to you.  done a while back,edited,reuploaded
1. Chapter 1

"I don't want to disappear…"

"And you won't, my little friend."

"But I don't want to be little! I want to be big! To be a big dream…to be dreamed by all…"

"Then why not let those who dream….come to you…"

"Clair!" the short, thin, pale teenage girl yelled as her sister, a tall teenage girl with tan skin and rather long legs, ran ahead of her. Clair didn't answer; she just kept running in the direction of the woods. The sisters knew better than to run into the woods during the day, but only the loss of their cat would make the sisters put aside their fears and run into the woods in the black of night with no light to see by. "Clair!" the girl yelled again, louder, as her sister ran into the woods and disappeared in darkness.

The girl walked into the woods slowly, unsure of her surroundings. Finally, after a few minutes propped against a tree, she slid down the ground and breathed deeply. Her sister was much faster than herself, so she had to take a long time to catch her breath.

The sound of crunching leaves from behind her got her attention, and she whipped around to see….no one. She turned around, and suddenly she wasn't there anymore. She wasn't here, she wasn't home, she wasn't….anywhere. Trees all around her everywhere. She looked up to see daylight. Leaves crunched behind her again. Before she could turn around, something flew by her head and got stuck in the tree. Slowly and carefully, she reached a shaking hand out to touch the object.

A sword. A sword had flown right by her head and embedded itself into the tree behind her. She pulled out the sword. It was light, could be easily swung, and engraved with the words 'The First Alice'. Running her fingers over the blade, she reached the hilt of the sword. On it was a single spade carved from ruby. An engraved short sword. She looked back at the tree, and saw a playing card; the ace of spades. She picked it up, and as she did, a red spade faded into view on the back of her hand. Turning back to the card in confusion, she flipped it over and saw that the back of the card was mirrored.

She couldn't believe what she saw. A shadow shaped like a girl, with an evil grin shown by a white crescent. She almost dropped the card, but she couldn't, her hand wouldn't move. She stared, captivated by the shadowy child and its white crescent, malevolent smile.

She heard more crunching leaves beside her, and without thinking, she immediately shot out her right hand, which held the sword. She felt the blade slow down as she sliced through whatever had been at shoulder height. Realizing she had probably injured something, she turned her head, and lowered the tip of her sword. A boy with a red shirt lay on the ground. No, it wasn't red, it was stained with blood. She gasped and backed up against the tree. Looking down, she saw the small trail of blood her sword had made.

"No…" she whispered in shock, unbelieving that she would do something like that, even if she wasn't thinking. She couldn't do that again, she wouldn't, she would put the sword down _now._ But her hand didn't let go. She held the card in her left hand, the bloodied sword in the right. She told herself '_I can't do that again. Why did I even do that? Why don't I put the sword down now?'_ But she didn't. She tried to convince herself she couldn't, but from that moment on, she gave up, and she knew. She _had_ to do that again.

Her sword went through the flesh of humans as though it were butter. She wore a fancy red dress, but not too long, ending at about her knee, with a white apron, and red ballerina slippers, just without the ribbons. Her hair was brown and short, and her skin was now a marble of red and pink. Her eyes were red, and, just like the rest of her, stained with blood. She constantly wore a large crescent smile. She had made a name for herself, the only thing that her victims could say before she killed them: Alice. She roamed the woods, her new wonderland, no longer afraid, and no longer willing to leave, not even if her cat had run out of the woods, but she needn't worry, her pet was nowhere near her territory.

She looked down at her apron and wiped the fresh blood from her hand. Her sword was never stained with blood. A stainless steel blade was hard to get blood to dry on and stay. Alice looked behind her to see the small child that had followed her ever since that first day.

"You're getting quite big, aren't you?" Alice asked, her sword pointed downward. She didn't have a sheath, her sword was always drawn, and almost always swinging. The trees around her had also been stained with blood, but that never seemed to bother the two, facing each other in a small glade, always. Why? Because Alice wanted it that way. This was her wonderland, the child with chalk white skin and black eyes said so.

"Alice." It said, for once not wearing its crescent smile. "Don't you think you're killing too many?" It asked in a slow, quiet voice. Alice threw her sword at it, but like always, the child just moved slightly and grabbed the handle, holding it below the bright red spade, and pointing the blade at Alice. Her hands were mostly stained with her victim's blood, but when the child would point the sword at her, she had nothing to grab but the blade, which she did, and grasped the hilt. The blade hardly bothered her anymore. Like her heart, her hands had grown hard from the deaths of those who had died by the instrument of death she constantly held in her hands.

"This is my wonderland," Alice said, looking down at the blade as she pointed it downward again. Her left hand no longer held the card, she had lost it a few minutes after she met the child. She suspected it had the card that had shown her the future of herself, but she never said so out loud. "You said so. If this is my wonderland, shouldn't I be able to do as I please?" Alice asked, her tone uncertain and her voice quiet, hardly audible.

"Every day," the child started, picking a rose from the ground, not caring about the thorns that threatened to break the skin at every glance. "The trees multiply. The forest grows denser. For every life you take," it said, slowly spinning the rose in its fingers. The rose started to wilt and turn gray. "Another tree grows. This forest will soon become your prison." It said, as it had many times before. Alice swung her sword, and the bloom of the rose fell, severed from its stem. It turned a dark, depressing shade of grayish-red, its petals shrinking and drying up, becoming brittle and fragile.

"You say that every time I meet you." Alice said, her voice no longer quiet, but very sharp, and purposely spoken to sound as if she was boldly stating a fact.

"And with good reason." The child said, picking up a new rose, but the rose broke as it held a single petal. "I don't want to disappear." Tears started to form at the end of its eyes. "I DON'T WANT TO DISAPPEAR!" it yelled, causing the leaves on the trees to tremble. Alice looked around franticly. "You are no longer welcome in this dream." The child said as boldly as Alice had a minute ago. "You sinful being." It stated, its voice flat.

Alice opened her mouth to say something, but the words wouldn't come to her. She looked around, the air tense and echoing with the white child's words. Alice thought her eyes were tricking her as she saw hands come out of the trees. Pitch black hands made from tree bark and thorn, with sharp fingers. The first hand grabbed onto Alice's left wrist, and she slashed at it with her sword, but two hands reached out and caught her arm before her sword could reach.

A flurry of hands reached out at her, grabbing for her clothes and her limbs. They covered her mouth when she started screaming, and sank their daggers for fingers into her skin, blood welling up beneath them as they buried themselves into the flesh of her face, pulling her back and down in a diagonal line. A few moments later and Alice was completely covered in thorns except her right hand and her sword, and her face. She was screaming behind the hand that held her mouth shut.

The child stepped forward, holding the ace of spades in its hand, holding it out near Alice's face. Alice leaned forward and tried to break free of the hands to grab the card with her left hand, for fear the sword would cut it. The hands quickly pulled Alice back, and Alice, out of strength and willpower, let them hold her back, leaning on their thorns for support. "You didn't deserve to be in wonderland." The child said, its hands on the top of the card as if about to rip it. More thorns and hands reached out and squared an area off behind Alice, the area where all the trees of the dead had been, where Alice had lived, and where Alice had first come into the wonderland, now twisted with her hatred and disregard for human lives. Alice's eyes widened, she dropped the sword and reached for the card with her now free right hand.

Alice's screams grew louder, her eyes becoming desperate, and she grabbed the bottom of the card, trying to pull it away from the child who had followed her. Alice was no longer held by the hands, but by a wall of hands merely separating her from the child, except for her right hand and face, though a hand was still covering her mouth. The child pulled it's hands sharply to the left, ripping the card in half, Alice holding the bottom in shocked confusion. Alice, who had now quieted, didn't notice as the hand that covered her mouth pulled away. She screamed, the sounds of her screams echoing off the sky and traveling through the forest of death. The child paid no thought to Alice's high pitched screams and walked away.

When the sky was dark, Alice had stopped screaming. The hands were slowly returning to their trees, but many still made a wall she didn't bother to try and get past, she knew the hands would come back to restrain her.

She had spent a few weeks in her prison. She had picked her sword back up, and now looked at it like something foreign. She couldn't remember why she had killed all those people, she couldn't remember her old home, and she couldn't remember a time when she was outside of this prison of a forest, cut off from any outside. The spade on her right hand was gone, though occasionally, when she would swing her sword at something, even if it was a tree, the red spade that had once given her the madness needed to kill all those she had would come back. The sword that had once given her the name Alice now was stained with blood, its coating faded and its blade rough, littered with impurities that allowed blood to set and dry. She could no longer read the engravings on the blade she once owned. A few times she would grasp the hilt and the madness would come flooding back. She tried to get through the wall of hands that stopped her, but she was held back, the rest of the hands rushing to help their companions. Occasionally she dropped her sword through one of the gaps in the wall, and had to strain against the resisting hands to grab it back and retreat to her prison cell.

Alice stared, captivated, by the back of the card. The child was still there, but the back was no longer mirrored. The child's grin was turned, and it was forever stuck in a depressing and empty frown. It still had no eyes, though sometimes a gray light flickered where an eye should be. '_It must've found another victim…'_ Alice thought, not sure why she was thinking it. '_I hope they don't end up like me.'_


	2. Chapter 2

"You failed that time… maybe you should—"

"I'm not giving up! I will be dreamt by someone who deserves to dream me!"

"….have it your way…."

"I will."

In an empty lot across from an old, abandoned apartment building were four kids. One was a girl with long pink hair with silver tips, and the rest were boys, about five years older. One had black hair, the other had red hair, and one had blue hair. The red and black haired children were running away from the girl, a rag doll hanging limply from the red haired boy's hand.

"Stop!" the girl whined, her voice breaking as tears slid down her face. "Give it back!" she almost tripped as she stopped and fell to her knees from lack of oxygen. The two boys laughed at her and said something between themselves inaudible to the other two children. The last child, the one with blue hair, stood, eyes closed, singing in a foreign language. His songs were about death and sickness, but no one ever bothered to listen.

"Hey Alien!" the boy with black hair called. The other boy stopped singing, opened his eyes and looked at them. He didn't speak much, but he knew responding to the nickname 'Alien' only made people think he was weirder. But still, no one bothered to learn his name either. "Wanna come with us?" he asked, laughing. The blue haired boy stood still and dropped his gaze, looking down at the girl with long pink and silver hair. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She was like him, except she was almost thirteen and he was almost sixteen. But still, they both had the same mental problems. It didn't help when every child who decided to stand out went to an insane asylum.

The boys, laughing, ran across the street and into the old apartment building. The girl was crying, but through her tears she managed to mutter "Great, now I'll never get it back…" The boy said nothing for a few moments, then walked over to the girl.

"I'll get it back." He said, then started running off into the old building across the street. The front door was usually locked, he'd tried to get in many times before, to sing uninterrupted and to get away from the kids who never went to the asylum.

He tried to open the doors, which opened so easily he almost fell from the force he used trying to get it open. He looked around at the sparkling lobby. Everything was new. The tile floor was polished, and windows were almost invisible instead of the dirt that was normally caked on the glass, and the walls were completely clean. There were a few people, and a small radio was playing. There were two sets of stairs which led to different sides of the next floor. How could there be people here? This place had been abandoned for years. He walked over to one of the couches, and someone walked up to him, a tall man with rather bright orange hair.

"Young man, would you mind closing the door?" he asked politely. The boy stared at him, then looked over at the front door he had left open. There was a slight breeze that made the air cooler than it had been, and as the boy walked over to close it, he looked outside quickly, and saw nothing. To the left was a forest, half hidden in shadow, and to the right was more of the city, buildings made of brick and wood, and tall structures. He closed the door, lost in confusion. Before he knew it people were staring at him. Everything was silent, and he covered his mouth after realizing that he had been unconsciously singing his songs about death.

The strangers continued to stare at him for a few moments more, then the few people in the lobby clapped and starting calling out things like 'Sing again, boy!' or 'That was wonderful! Why can't you sing like that, son?' and other various such things that got drowned out as the applause grew. The boy stared out blankly.

"You like my singing?" he asked, confused and shocked. He had never met anyone who had even understood his singing or even listened. The small radio was turned off and he started singing again, this song about poverty, one he doesn't sing often. After that song, the grandfather clock by the far wall chimed eleven times, and the strangers walked up the stairs to their own apartments.

The boy sat down on one of the couches, unsure where he could stay, when they man with orange hair from earlier came up. "I got you an apartment." He said, tossing a key down at the boy, who grabbed it in both hands as if he were clapping. He looked at the key. 'Apartment 524' it said on the thin plastic card hanging from the same ring as the key. The boy looked up, but the man was already gone.

The boy sat in silence. He heard the radio slowly turn up, and looked over at it. He thought he saw something white standing there, but it was gone the second it took for his eyes to look at the radio after moving their gaze so quickly. He rubbed his eyes and looked back at the radio. _'Sleep deprivation must be getting to me.'_ He thought, standing up. He passed the radio on his way to the stair case, but stopped and took a few steps back until the radio was right beside him.

Ontop of the radio was a sheet of music. "'The Second Alice'." He read the title of the song aloud, though no one could hear. The song was written in blue ink, and on the back was a big blue diamond. He looked down at the radio to see if there was anything left, and he picked up something else, something smaller than the sheet music. A playing card; the ace of diamonds. However, on the back was not another diamond like on the music, but a reflective sheen, like a mirror. In the mirror was a shadow of himself with an evil grin shaped like a crescent, almost taking up half his face. It had no eyes, though when he moved it he could see a faint glimmer of silver as if the eyes were watching him. He heard a faint echo around the room and he looked deep into the mirrored card. 'End up like me…' it said, then disappeared.

The boy had sung the song 'The Second Alice', and now it was all he ever sang, and the people loved it. People came to live in the apartments just to hear him sing. He felt happy, though sad at the same time. The song changed him and those who heard it. People started calling him 'the second Alice', and that was what he went by now. Though Alice wasn't a very 'manly' name, to him, it was better than the name 'Alien'.

There were more crimes than before, people were saying. Robberies, murders, suicide, homicide, and other various criminal acts. The people who came to hear him sing were prime suspects, and a few of them had been proven as guilty. The more he sang, the more crimes and death occurred, and he knew it. But did he stop? No, he couldn't, he _wouldn't._ These people were glad to hear his singing, unlike everyone he had met or even seen. He couldn't sing his old songs either. He was stuck on 'The Second Alice', his song, _his._ It had named him in this world, given him some joy; this was the song these people liked best, and as long as they continued to enjoy it, he would sing what the people wanted.

He no longer saw people. The sky was always a shade of blue, his blue, the blue of the diamond that was now on his hand. The blue ink from the music had faded into black though, and every time he sang it, it seemed to him that the ink grew darker. Blue roses were everywhere, the thorns poking out slightly. He was never one for having thorns bury themselves in his hand when he picked up a rose, but was a rose a rose without thorn? Having little thorns was better than no thorns. He saw the world as skeletons, death waiting to happen. Skeletons trimmed with blue lined the world around him in the apartment building lobby.

From what he understood, the world was becoming like 'The Second Alice'. The world covered in blue, distortion, death, crime, illness, fire, destruction. Everything the song contained was there.

For the first time in a while, when the Second Alice sang, he had one of the largest audiences since he had started singing. When he began the song, even before the first line was over, people were rioting with cheers and claps. The skeletons were everywhere, filling up the lobby of the apartment building. Except one. A single skeleton, white instead of black tinted with blue, holding a gun and a single blue rose.

Everything turned blue as he fell, vines slowly wrapping around him. The people gradfually went silent, picking some of the blue roses and laying them beside him. Soon after, the apartment building was empty; no one had a reason to be here anymore it seemed. He was the only one left, dying on the lobby floor. Or at least he should've been. A blue rose bloomed from his heart where he was shot, and the thorny vines that grew from it completely stopped any movements before he even thought about them.

He didn't know how long he'd be there, feigning death. He remembered the card, the ace of diamonds he had found that day. The vines allowed him to take the card from the inside pocket of his shirt. He pulled the card out in two parts. It had been ripped. But how? He couldn't answer. The shadow that had once held a smile now held a frown, the same crescent, just turned, and they eyes gleamed a brighter silver than before.

His arm dropped to the ground again, and he lay there, unmoving. He couldn't think, his world was turning gray, his mind a haze and his voice already aching from disuse. Through the haze, he knew something was wrong. He didn't feel alone, there was someone else. Someone else who was simply…

'_Feigning death…'_ he thought, the haze covering his mind and holding back any more thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

"You keep failing."

"I have a backup plan this time, and it is already in motion."

"…..If you say so…..then so be it…"

The school bell rang and the front doors swung open as students from the elementary school flooded out into the streets on their way home. After everyone else was gone, a small girl, a fifth grader, with long green pig tails, slowly walked down the front steps, bag in hand. It was finally the end of the day, and the girl couldn't wait to get home and hide herself in her room. She had no friends and her family hardly noticed her. Her big sister was almost never around. She worked in an office building that was open all day every day. But her sister didn't need to worry; she had the night shift, so she could be home in time to tell the girl good morning and good night at the beginning and end of her shifts.

Reaching the front door of her house, the girl half heartedly pushed it opened and walked inside, closing the door behind her. As usual, her parents weren't home and the little yellow sticky note was on the dining room table. She picked it up and read what it said out loud.

"'Out to dinner with neighbers. Do your chores and homework and no TV.' Oh mother, you always spell neighbors wrong." She said, crumpling up the sticky note. She didn't need to do her chores, her father always did them for her. Her father loved her too much. She walked into her room and changed out of her school uniform into one of her best dresses, it matched her hair and made her look cute.

She walked out the front door, locked it behind her, and went across the street to see Clair. Clair had a sister, but she was more of a big sister than her own sister was. She knocked on the front door and was immediately brought inside by Clair's mother.

"Thank god!" she exclaimed, hugging the girl like she was her own daughter. "Clair could use your company right now." She said, standing up straight and leading the girl into Clair's room. "The cat ran away and now - is missing too." The girl didn't hear the name of Clair's sister, and they hatred each other, so she really didn't care all too much. She walked into Clair's room and sat down on the bed beside Clair.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She had never seen Clair cry and it worried her deeply.

"- is missing." She said. Now the girl thought it was odd. Why couldn't she hear the name of Clair's sister? She couldn't remember it either.

"No one can say her name…" the girl muttered only loud enough for Clair to hear it.

Clair looked up. "They say that weird boy is also missing. The one who sings all the time." She said, trying to stop crying and wiping the back of her hand over her eyes to remove the tears that had gathered there.

"-?" The girl said, or rather, didn't say. '_You can't say the name of anyone who's missing?'_ she asked herself, then stood up. "I've got to go, Clair. See ya later." She said, and almost flew out the front door, down the street, and up to the house of the boy. His parents told the same story.

She couldn't believe it. Why would people suddenly go missing and you not be able to say their name? It just didn't make sense. When the girl got home, her parents exploded in her face about chores and homework. She didn't reply, only walked away to her room and slammed the door, locking it in case her parents wanted to come in.

She woke up and, realizing she was late, grabbed some toast and ran out the front door. She was almost at school when she realized she wasn't wearing her uniform. '_Oh well. They can deal with it.'_ She thought, running to get to the front gates before they closed. She was at the front entrance when the bell signaling the start of classes echoed. Sighing she pushed open the door expecting a hall monitor or the vice principle to be standing there to bring her to the front office.

But no. No one was there in that gold lined hallway that was _not_ her school. It had to be a dream, her school wasn't covered in gold. She turned around to see if she had the right building, but when she turned around she didn't know where she was. Stone buildings much like her own town, but not. They were made of large, white stone blocks like those in a castle, and the streets weren't paved, but rather marked with dirt. A forest to her right and left, and the city in front of her. No, not a city, a kingdom. She was standing at the castle.

She dropped her school bag and walked inside, gazing around in awe. She saw a small table with a metal tray. On that tray was a single apple, bright red and one of the biggest apples she had ever seen. Only, there was a green clover on it. She tried to pick it off, but she couldn't. She shrugged and decided to eat around it, but she only took one bite.

She felt like she had a mask on covering her left eye, but when she looked in the mirror she was just her normal self. Half her face was tingling, like there was something invisible covering it. She almost clawed at her face, trying to rip off the invisible force she knew had to be there. After a few seconds of reasoning with herself, she decided the best thing to do would be not to think of it. Looking back in the mirror, she almost jumped back, thinking someone else had stepped in front of her.

The person in front of her was her height, but she seemed taller somehow, had long green hair down to the floor, and smooth tan skin. She had bright green eyes, and she was smiling. The woman was also holding something in her hand. A playing card it looked like: the ace of clubs. As the girl was about to touch the mirror, a sound caught her attention. Turning around sharply, she almost tripped over her own feet, which, surprisingly to her, seemed farther away from her face than usual. Putting her thoughts aside, she searched the room with her gaze, staying in place. She could've sworn she heard someone laugh, like a little kid who had played a prank on someone and was waiting for the funniest part; a small, subtle, quiet little giggle. Turning back around, the girl almost tripped, again, as she searched the mirror for the woman who was there earlier. Finding no sign, she turned her attention back to the playing card. What had it meant? Where was it?

Her question was answered when her eyes caught the small playing card resting on the reflection of the table where she had found the apple. She reached up to touch the glass, but her fingers flowed right through it, as if it were water, not glass. She reached out and took the playing card from inside the mirror. Unsure of what was going on, what choice did she have but to follow the instructions given to her.

The girl sat, clothed in long, elegant, beautiful gowns, her long hair flowing down her back, and her bright green eyes closed. Like most, if not all, queens, she didn't like listening to the complaints of her subjects, thought she probably only heard about ten a month. Unaware that the last person had left, she was startled to hear a different voice, one in a higher octave then the last of her subjects that was here. Opening her eyes, and looking down slightly, she saw a small child, it's bare skin white and looking sewn together, almost like Frankenstein's monster. It had no eyes, only black holes. At once the queen knew that the voice matched the same one that had laughed back when she first came here.

"Queen Alice the third," the child said, as all of the Queen's subjects did when they wanted something. The Queen rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, but she didn't ignore the child. "I have watched your kingdom, and I am here to give you news."

"Good or bad?" she asked, waving a hand to shoo her guards away. Reluctantly they left and closed the large oak doors to the Queen's throne hall behind them.

"The latter." The child didn't move, but by its voice, the Queen could tell that this 'news', whatever it was, was meant for her ears only, and it was undoubtedly something she would not like hearing. "Though you wish to rein for centuries, though this is your world…" the child paused, and the Queen sat up, no longer resting her cheek in one hand, leaning against the arm of her throne, and paid close attention, feeling this was one of those things that would only be said once.

When the child decided to speak again, it took a step back toward the oak doors. "You _will_ die." The child said, waiting in silence for the Queen's reply.

"But…" The Queen shook her head, baffled and bewildered. "I'm in perfect health, there hasn't been a thing wrong with me since I've been here."

The child shook its head. "No. This world is what you want it to be, not what it is." The child waved a hand around, and suddenly the whole world flashed into view. The walls crumbling, the windows broken, the sky red, the sun black, and the only clouds were clouds of blood. Outside was no city, no kingdom, only a crumbling shell of the kingdom she once knew. Skeletons lay on the ground, all over, everywhere. Awe struck and even more confused than before, the Queen reached up to hold her head in her hands, but one glance, and the Queen froze. Her skin was a sickly pale with a tint of teal, cyan, light blue, lime green, whatever color it was. Little black flowers were covering almost every inch of exposed flesh she could find on her hands, arms, feet, and legs. Trying to shock herself into thinking it wasn't real, she picked a mirror off the wall and looked into it. Her bright green eyes were now dim and faded pools of a dull pine green. Her skin was still smooth, but it was also covered in little black flowers.

Her dress was tattered and ripped up to her knees. Her high heel, silver colored shoes were now stripes of cotton fabric wrapped around her feet. Her beautiful jewelry was gone. Her long hair was dirty and matted, tangled from root to tip. The only thing remotely beautiful was the crown that sat on her head. A stunning gold now tarnished, and sparkling emeralds now covered with dust and dirt and cracked.

When the Queen sat on the ground, hunched over holding her stomach as if she was sick, sitting on her feet and her knees pulled up to her chin, the child started walking away.

"Oh." The Queen said. The child stopped, but didn't turn around to look at the Queen. "Be a dear and…" The Queen turned her head to look at the child. Her left eye was covered with a white mask, the only thing in perfect shape on her being. She was smiling, a little white crescent smile that spread from cheek to cheek. Her right eyes was a clover, a solid green the color of her hair. "Lock the door on your way out."

As the big oak doors closed and the lock clicked into place, the Queen turned her head to look over at the broken window. She saw the crumbling remains of her kingdom in front of her, but past that, she also saw the ship yard she had wanted to build. She hadn't known why, she just wanted to build something. Skeletons were crawling all over it, still building it as if they were construction workers. Skeletons dangled from planks of wood that still had to be sawed. They leaned against the frame of the building that was next to it. It would never get finished at this rate. The queen was silent for a few minutes, still smiling, unable to change her face. She was no longer a beautiful woman, but rather a rotting child, she told herself.

"But rot is pretty in this world, no?" She asked to no one, as if someone was in the room with her. Still crouched on the floor, she sat, waiting. Eventually, as blood red rays from the sky reflecting the darkened light of the sun hit her face, she saw how this world perfectly suited her. Her head fell onto her shoulder, her white smile never changing, her clover eye, and her mask. She sat there, for a long time, unsure if she was even alive anymore. She tranferred herself to her throne and sat, starring out at the ruined kingdom.


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm starting to think you're letting these people dream you simply to let them die quicker."

"Think what you want, but I have my reasons."

"You are twisted. Living alone in Wonderland for so long must've messed with your mind."

"Maybe I am twisted, but I will keep trying until the death of me, and we both know that _I_ am never going to die…"

"A rumor is spreading through town," the girl said as she laid the mail on the table. "That people are disappearing. People that—"

"People that lived in that mental hospital or are living there now are the ones being taken. I heard it too." Her brother said as he dropped his stuff on the floor and sat down on the couch. Him and his sister were twins, and lived together, having no parents. They decided to pretend they had parents, because in their town, if you were an orphan, you went to live in that asylum for the mentally insane, which they had anyway, but orphans are left there. It's not an orphanage, so if you go there, even if you're mentally sane, you don't leave until they say you can, and most of the time, people who leave, if any does, escapes, but are hunted down and killed or severely wounded.

They both had blonde hair and blue eyes. The brother was shy, but the sister was thick-headed, stubborn, and strong-willed, and most of the people at school called her whole life a 'blonde moment'. Her brother couldn't really argue, since his sister was there for being insane in the first place. He was there simply because he had been her twin. They had run away about three years ago, and they were pretty certain that the people in white coats from the asylum weren't looking for them anymore.

The sister walked over to the couch and sat beside her brother. "That's why I think we're next." She said, resting her head on his shoulder. "I mean, I always think we're next, but this time I _know._" She looked over at the window and closed the blinds, as if the person kidnapping all the children was outside.

"How?" her brother asked rhetorically. He didn't really care, but might as well ask or his sister would keep bothering him.

"Because," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. "They say that the kidnapper wears all white. If that's the case than it must be those guys from the crazy hut. And if so, then they must still be looking for us. They already have Clair's little sister, that guy who sings a lot, and that little green haired girl from school." The girl took her hair in her hands and held them to make it look as if she had pigtails. Her brother rolled his eyes.

"You always think they're still looking for us, it's been three years and they haven't found us yet." He said, standing up. His sister fell sideways, horizontal on the couch, lying where he had just been sitting. Looking down at her and shaking his head slightly, her brother walked into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and looked around for leftovers. He pulled out a few boxes of Chinese food from last night and gave one to his sister when he walked back into the living room.

His sister ate her food lying down and he sat in the chair beside the door. After him and his sister finished their food, he threw away the cartons and put the forks and spoons and other various tableware in the sink. They didn't use chopsticks often. They then watched random shows on TV until two AM.

"Okay." The boy said, standing up and stretching. He grabbed his sister's wrist and started to pull her off the couch. "Time for bed." Yes, they shared a bedroom, but they slept in separate beds, mostly because his sister sleep-punched-people-in-the-face.

He had to drag his sister all the way to their room because she refused to get up and walk. When they were in the room, she still wouldn't move, she just lay on the floor, sleeping. He got into his own bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

He awoke to hear the front door crash, the muffled sound of wood hitting carpet. His sister also woke up, and both were sitting up in their beds, staring at the open door to the bedroom. Silence, then suddenly "Search the house." Someone yelled. His sister got out of her bed, grabbed her brother's wrist, and started toward the door.

"Told you we were next." She whispered as she tip-toed past one of the men in white. As they almost reached the front door, two people grabbed their shoulders, and tried to handcuff them. If you escaped from the asylum, you were either treated like a prisoner or killed, depending on how much trouble you had caused, and the boy figured they had caused enough.

Both twins were handcuffed and being led outside toward a big black van. It was only six AM, and already almost the whole town had gathered to see if the infamous twins that had eluded the asylum for years would finally be caught, and many were disappointed to see them. A few cheered, like those who had been pressured by the asylum for information they didn't have, but they were quickly silenced.

As the van drove away, the sound of the jeers faded and after a while the asylum came into view. When the van stopped and the door opened so the twins could be brought out, the girl whispered "I don't wanna be back…" They were brought into the asylum and put into a small elevator set for floor thirteen, the floor where you were killed or the extremely dangerous insane people were kept.

As the elevator 'dinged' and the doors open, they saw a bunch of buildings, crumbling away under a red sky. The sun looked like the middle of a solar eclipse, and there was no wind. The forest off to the right was black, a shroud of shadow engulfing it. The only thing that seemed out of place in this ruined world was a big neon sign on top of a building, the only one fully intact except for a castle about half a mile in front of them, that said "APARTMENTS" in big, lit up, blue letters, though the windows were broken and no lights were on.

His sister started walking ahead, but he stepped in front of her. "I think we should look around first." He said, looking over at the black forest. He could hear something, a faint pounding, constant, never ceasing. 'bump-bump…bump-bump' A heart beat? He asked himself, unsure. It sounded like one, but it was too faint to tell.

His sister held up her hands, the handcuffs broken around her wrists. His were broken too, so he slid them off and dropped them on the floor after his sister did. Without a word, both started walking off toward the forest. As they passed the first tree, it was no longer darkness around them, but it was as if it was only dusk, light enough to see by and not yet totally dark. The trees they passed had black bark, black leaves, and the bark looked almost thorny. The further they walked in the forest, the louder a sound of screaming got. It wasn't a terrified scream, it was more like a scream of agony.

After a few minutes, they came up to a wall made of thick vines covered in thorns. A hand was sticking out, fresh blood dripping off its fingers. Below it, at the base of the wall, was a sword, small streams of blood, mostly dried, were staining the blade, and a small ruby spade on the hilt was cracked down the middle. The boy picked it up while his sister took a stick off the ground and started to poke the hand. The screams stopped and the hand swiped at her, grabbing her shirt sleeve. She hit the hand with the stick until it let go and tried to slide back through the hole it was caught, to go back into the area behind the wall. When it finally did, it was replaced with a red eye, looking out of the hole. It looked down at the sword and screamed "GIVE ME MY SWORD!" over and over.

The heartbeat he had been hearing got faster and louder, but only slightly. "Let's get out of here." He told his sister, putting the hand that wasn't holding the sword on her shoulder and pulling her along behind him as he started walking away. The screams started again, out of anger this time, and faded as the twins reached the end of the forest. As they stepped out back into the city, they were out of earshot of the screams, and all was silent again, mostly. His sister started walking off again, past full skeletons that were on the ground, leaning against walls, hanging out of windows, toward the hotel.

Upon reaching the hotel, the sound of electric currents filled the air. The faint sounds of someone singing echoed from a barely visible radio that could be seen through a broken window. The singing was barely audible through a lot of static. The song was in, what sounded like, Japanese. The lyrics were about death and corruption and crime and sickness. In the boy's opinion, not a song he would like listening to. The front door was locked, chains with spikes wrapped around the whole building, the lock in the shape of a big metal 2-D rose. His sister pulled on it, hoping the chains would be weak enough that she could tear the lock from them, but her attempt failed. Her brother took the sword, unconsciously, and cut the lock in half, the blood stained blade cutting it almost like butter.

The doors creaked open by themselves, and revealed a lobby. The couches were covered in dust, the front desk old and a small stage off to the left, in the back of the room. On the stage was a boy, a blue rose growing on his shirt. As the twins got closer, they recognized the face of the boy as someone they knew. The heart beat got louder, the same constant beating as it had been when they had gotten to this crumbling city, only a bit louder, almost doubling in volume.

The rose's vines were holding the boy's body in place, not allowing him to move. Without thinking, again, the boy took the sword and cut the rose in half, the blue petals falling and withering as they fell, landing as frail, brittle, dull blue husks of what they had been only seconds before. The boy's body grew colder, as though he hadn't been dead before. Well, if he wasn't then, he is now, the boy thought. The heartbeat got louder still.

They left the hotel, his sister muttering to herself "So this is where they all went." They headed off toward the castle, as they did, the heart beat got steadily louder and louder until they reached the doors of the gate, when it stayed the same volume, an ear popping volume, as if someone had taken a heartbeat and put it in stereo. As his sister was about to knock on the door, an envelope slid out from under it. A plain white envelope sealed with a small green clover on the back. He picked it up and opened it, pulling out a playing card, more specifically, the ace of hearts. On the back was a mirrored surface, showing a shadow child with bright silver eyes and a white crescent smile. His sister took it and looked at it.

"Well," she said, dropping it on the ground. "That was weird. What does it even mean? It's just a playing card. Is someone playing poker or something?" she rambled on, asking herself questions and making statements.

"Didn't you see the back?" her brother asked.

"Yeah, and all I saw was a freaky clown. All white with one of those jester hats with bells on the end." She said, pointing at her head as if she too were wearing a jester hat. Her brother quickly snatched up the card and inspected the back. Nothing changed, the shadow child still smiled. Narrowing his eyes, trying to look closer, the heartbeat got louder, he could hardly stand it anymore. The one thing he had learned about this beat is that it was coming from his sister, and the longer she lived, the louder it would get. Either he do something about it, or he let the sound drive him insane, and he was _not_ going to end up like the innocent that became trapped in the asylum, never again. He was thinking of a plan before he realized that his sister was far ahead of him, yelling at him to hurry up.

"There's only one place left to look." She said when he caught up. She pointed off at the castle with its black marble walls, its large rusty doors, its broken windows, and a withered, long dead, garden. When they approached, they could hear the sound of crying. Not like the yelling from the girl in the forest, but actual crying, as if another human being, who was completely sane, came here and saw instantly the horror of this place. It suddenly occurred to him that he was already becoming insane. Being here, actually listening to the distressed sounds of others, killing someone they once knew, and planning to kill his twin sister. For a few seconds, he decided that he must stop the noise of this world before it drove him over the border into direct insanity, no matter what the cost. However, in that short time, he forgot that his sister was the one causing it.

He opened the doors slowly as they creaked, whining in disuse. The air was musty, the interior was covered in a layer of dust so thick that his sister couldn't see the individual bricks on the floor, and the whole place smelled like rotting flesh. He didn't know how he knew the smell, he just did and was terrified by it. To the left of the hall were two large oak doors, the wood eaten away in places by termites, leaving holes behind that showed a withered shape sitting in a throne painted gold, holding her face in her hands and crying quietly.

His sister walked up to her and stared at her long green hair. The crying girl lifted her head, and she saw that it was that girl who was always quiet at school and had no friends. She automatically assumed that that was why the girl was crying. "It's okay," she said, patting her on the back. "You have friends."

The girl stopped crying, for the most part, and looked up at her, clearly confused. "What?"

"Aren't you crying because you have no friends?" the girl asked, ignoring her brother telling her that she wasn't helping the situation.

"No." the girl said, putting her face in her hands again, but not crying. Her voice was breaking as she spoke.

"Then why?" she asked, obviously not realizing that she wasn't helping.

The Queen was silent for a long time before responding. "Because this world is rotting, as well as me." She lifted her head and held out her arms, showing her pale skin, her once bright green eyes turned dark, and the little black flowers that covered her flesh in almost every square inch. "I am its queen, I guess it only seems fitting that I become ugly when my kingdom does."

"You aren't ugly!" the girl said, holding the Queen's hands. "You're still beautiful." She tried to lie, though she fully agreed. Upon arriving, she had instantly thought this place was ugly. The Queen, though she was beautiful, was also ugly at the same time, if it was possible to see that in someone at the same time.

The Queen hung her head. After a few seconds, she snatched her hands back and covered her face with them, crying again. "Lies don't help…" she said, her voice muffled through her hands. The girl looked back at her brother, who seemed off in another world.

"But…" the Queen said, her voice gentle and full of self-love. "Rot is pretty in this world, no?" She said, not really a question, as if she was stating a fact in a questioning tone. She lifted her head to show her white mask and the clover of an eye on the right side of her face.

The girl stood, shocked, not knowing what to say. Her brother looked on with indifference, focusing on the heartbeat. As the Queen's face changed, the heartbeat slowed and the volume went down to about half as loud. He saw something white out of the corner of his eye and turned to see what it was. It was a small human-like being, with no eyes, hair, and its head had a curved stitch, making it look like part of Frankenstein's monster, but only a small version. It looked at him with a smile like the one on the back of the playing card he held in one hand.

"I know you hear it," the creature said, but only he seemed to be able to hear its voice. "The heartbeat. I set up everything for your arrival, but these children had to come and ruin it. I made you a sword, and some woman comes and kills people with it. I tell the hotel manager to keep you a room while your castle is built, and he gives it to some singer. I finish building your castle, and that girl comes and claims it as hers. I planned everything perfect until it was ruined, why ruin it further?"

He didn't quite understand what the child was saying; he just wanted the heartbeat to stop. It made sense though, in a weird, twisted sort of way.

"The doors I set must've been more obvious or well hidden than I thought they'd be." The child muttered. Turning back to the boy, it said, speaking louder "Why not end the noise? If you end it here, it'll all be quiet." The child pointed at his sister and the Queen. He looked down at the sword in his hand, then up at his sister. He didn't know if he could kill her, but the beating was pounding on his ear drums, screaming at him to listen to what the child was saying, and begging him to be happy, no matter what the cost.

"Is something wrong?" his sister came up to him and asked, standing beside him, her back to the Queen. The queen was sitting in her throne, her face still half covered by the mask, and her right eye still a clover. He sighed, and, just as before, his arm flew out as if it had a mind of its own, and cut a deep slice across his sister's chest, killing her almost instantly. As she fell to the floor, dead, the child smiled. It had been right, the heartbeat did die down, just to a subtle thump.

He slowly walked up to the Queen, not looking down at his dead sister. He raised his sword to touch the base of the Queen's throat. She looked at him with her mask and clover eye, her long, white smile matching that of the child's, a crescent of solid white. 'This world is strange.' He told himself as he thrust his hand forward.

The sound of metal hitting metal as his sword connected with the back of the throne behind the Queen. Afterward—silence, complete and utter silence. The heartbeat stopped, there was no wind. Then, almost suddenly, the dust blew away from the ground. The windows put their pieces back together one by one, as if going back through time to end up whole, like it was before it was shattered. The walls and doors started to rebuild themselves, the color coming back to them. Before long, the boy was standing by a full length stain glass window, looking out at tall buildings and people walking along the streets.

He stood there for a while, the white child watching him. The sword became a stainless steel again, and the boy held up his hand and inspected the blade. "Are you alright?" the child asked him. The boy looked back with dark topaz eyes, and a yellow heart on his right hand.

"Yes," he answered darkly. "I think I am."


End file.
